Big Named Authors That Disappointed You?

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
23,079
Reaction score
10,776
Location
Where faults collide
Website
doggedlywriting.blogspot.com
Orson Scott Card was one such for me years and years ago. Friends raved about how life-changing Ender's Game was, and I found it to be a somewhat entertaining story but not that exciting. I really didn't understand the life changing part. The part about kids being turned into weapons by playing video games was interesting, but it wasn't something I related to particularly on a personal level. As with all recommendations from friends, one's own mileage may vary.

I could never get into Asimov's Foundation books either. Everyone who loves SFF puts them on the short list of all-time greats, but I found the characters wooden and the writing somewhat flat.

What's interesting about these threads is that some books others mention are ones I enjoyed a great deal. There really isn't any objective criteria for quality.
 
Last edited:

Scythian

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Messages
201
Reaction score
40
Paolo Coelho. I tried The Devil and Miss Prym, could not believe what I was reading, tried Veronika Decides to Die, which proved I was indeed reading what I thought I was reading with the previous book, and thus enlarged some more the "I don't get this" part of my life.
 

ShaunHorton

AW's resident Velociraptor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
3,550
Reaction score
511
Location
Washington State
Website
shaunhorton.blogspot.com
Dean Koontz for me. For someone I often see listed as one of the great writers of horror, I've been woefully disappointed in pretty much every one of his books I've read. Intensity, 77 Shadow Street, and Watchers.

The man is great at build-up and characterization, but the endings almost always fall away into deus ex machina, or even just kind of fade out. I was especially disappointed with Watchers, which felt like he got too attached to the characters and didn't want to risk them for the ending.
 

Scythian

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Messages
201
Reaction score
40
Dean Koontz for me. For someone I often see listed as one of the great writers of horror, I've been woefully disappointed in pretty much every one of his books I've read. Intensity, 77 Shadow Street, and Watchers.

The man is great at build-up and characterization, but the endings almost always fall away into deus ex machina, or even just kind of fade out. I was especially disappointed with Watchers, which felt like he got too attached to the characters and didn't want to risk them for the ending.

He's got one novel where the buildup actually culminates in an appropriately incredible climax (The Bad Place) and one novel where the chosen open ending is also actually quite fitting (Dark Rivers of the Heart). Beyond that he is indeed like Lee Child--a tendency to have terrific buildup and brilliant scenes/situation, and have all this undermined by the finale.
 

autumnleaf

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 29, 2010
Messages
1,133
Reaction score
215
Location
small rainy island
I'd heard great things about Joyce Carol Oates, but I found We Were the Mulvaneys a frustrating read. The only character I cared about was Marianne, but she was kept off stage for most of the book. Instead, I had to spend time with the rest of her horrible, selfish, and worst of all boring family. Never read any other Oates -- maybe they're better?
 

_Melody_

Registered
Joined
Aug 4, 2018
Messages
18
Reaction score
2
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. I know its blasphemy to some people, but I just could not get through it. I personally find, it hasnt aged well. But to each their own I guess.
 

Morning Rainbow

Destroyer of Words
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
245
Reaction score
110
Location
Laniakea Supercluster
Website
www.almunson.com
I read The Pearl by John Steinbeck and found it incredibly boring. There is almost no dialogue. How does a family journey across the desert without saying a word to each other?

I read an excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath that was really interesting and made me consider reading that book, but a voice in the back of my head asked, "Do you really want to give Steinbeck another shot?" That was over 10 years ago and I still haven't decided whether I want to read The Grapes of Wrath or not. One bad experience with a book can have a lasting effect.
 

Emermouse

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 30, 2012
Messages
896
Reaction score
89
Age
38
Location
In America
Regarding the Grapes of Wrath, the first time I read it, I actually liked the interludes where Steinbeck talked about the nature of labor and all that, better than the actual story stuff with the Joads. I felt the Joads came across as entirely too cornpone and cliche. Rereading it, I still think that the Joads are a little too cornpone, but at the same time, the text has nothing but sympathy and compassion for them as the Joads try to take care of each other, in a world that makes it abundantly clear that not only do they not care about them, they will actively persecute them for trying to survive. It is, like many classic novels, a fascinating window into the time in which the writer was working.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Regarding the Grapes of Wrath, the first time I read it, I actually liked the interludes where Steinbeck talked about the nature of labor and all that, better than the actual story stuff with the Joads. I felt the Joads came across as entirely too cornpone and cliche. Rereading it, I still think that the Joads are a little too cornpone, but at the same time, the text has nothing but sympathy and compassion for them as the Joads try to take care of each other, in a world that makes it abundantly clear that not only do they not care about them, they will actively persecute them for trying to survive. It is, like many classic novels, a fascinating window into the time in which the writer was working.

For some further understanding of this time and situation, nothing could be better than James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, with evocative photographs by Walker Evans. In them, you can see the Joads, and grasp something of what they were about.

caw
 

Cobalt Jade

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
3,289
Reaction score
1,441
Location
Seattle
John Le Carre. So very very dry, cynical, sour, and tart. Couldn't get beyond the first 100 pages.
 

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,197
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Los Angeles
Despite having a soft spot for hysterical realism in all its messy, ponderous glory, I could never get into David Foster Wallace very much. Same for Don Dellio, though I've been meaning to go back and see how White Noise ​has aged.
 

Lehssner

Registered
Joined
Dec 8, 2018
Messages
28
Reaction score
1
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, the Stormlight Archive series. Loved the first two books but did not like number 3.
 

Scythian

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Messages
201
Reaction score
40
John Le Carre. So very very dry, cynical, sour, and tart. Couldn't get beyond the first 100 pages.

Len Deighton is the anti-Carre. His Harry Palmer books are the anti-John Smiley. Still very British, still very downplayed and understated, and from the same era, but pleasingly wry and *warm* in the Chandler/Macdonald way.

Despite having a soft spot for hysterical realism in all its messy, ponderous glory, I could never get into David Foster Wallace very much. Same for Don Dellio, though I've been meaning to go back and see how White Noise ​has aged.

When Pynchon got older, he suddenly started writing readable stuff, in this sense. The Bleeding Edge and Inherent Vice are like very jazzed up pulp novels done by a more disciplined Tom Robbins.

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, the Stormlight Archive series. Loved the first two books but did not like number 3.

I don't get anything by Mr. Sanderson. Less then 10 pages in I give up. But all modern fantasy affects me like this, except Richard K Morgan's 'A Land Fit for Heroes' series, which is pretty badass and has almost no soaps or costume drama vibes.
 
Last edited:

Cal_Darin

There's always another secret!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 6, 2018
Messages
127
Reaction score
29
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
I don't get anything by Mr. Sanderson. Less then 10 pages in I give up. But all modern fantasy affects me like this, except Richard K Morgan's 'A Land Fit for Heroes' series, which is pretty badass and has almost no soaps or costume drama vibes.

I love Sanderson, but I get why he isn't for everybody. My wife liked Mistborn, but couldn't do Stormlight. Reading a Sanderson book is a bit like doing a project. I may or may not take notes as I go to track all of the Cosmere interactions. I am weird in that I love re-reading stuff digging for more clues.



So. I love world building.

Somebody recommended Tad William's "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" book series to me. I picked it up. I love world building, but this was like being told you're getting pizza, a lot of pizza, which you like, and then you're given an infinite supply of those freezer pizzas they sell at gas stations. Yes, technically you were given a lot of pizza. It just isn't very good.


I could write essays on what bothered me, but to sum it up... Early on in the first book, the MC is being given a history lesson by his mentor. This lesson consists of just a list of names. After what felt like 5 pages of this list, his mentor stops and observes that the main character is falling asleep from boredom... AND THEN CONTINUES TO LIST. If the MC is falling asleep, what do you think is going on with the reader? Gah. I just. I wanted to like it and was just so let down.

Edit-- If you want to give Sanderson another shot, try his Wax 'n Wayne books. Shifts away from the fate of the world stuff for a steam-punky buddy cop story about a lawman and his perpetually hammered deputy!
 
Last edited:

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,197
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Los Angeles
When Pynchon got older, he suddenly started writing readable stuff, in this sense. The Bleeding Edge and Inherent Vice are like very jazzed up pulp novels done by a more disciplined Tom Robbins.

I know, right? Liked Inherent Vice just fine, never read Bleeding Edge. Pretty cultish Pynchon fan in my twenties, fell off right around the time Bleeding Edge came out and never really went back, though not really due to any loss of esteem.

But all modern fantasy affects me like this, except Richard K Morgan's 'A Land Fit for Heroes' series, which is pretty badass and has almost no soaps or costume drama vibes.

I had some issues with this series, but overall enjoyed it very much. Best thing to read once you've burned through Abercrombie, if that's your jam.

I love Sanderson, but I get why he isn't for everybody.

Heh, I have strong feelings about overly mechanistic and systematized magic, which [caveat] I don't expect everyone to share. I had issues with Brian McClellan's Powdermage series as well because of this, despite absolutely losing my mind over an Early Modern fantasy series based around the French Revolution.
 
Last edited:

Cal_Darin

There's always another secret!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 6, 2018
Messages
127
Reaction score
29
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Heh, I have strong feelings about overly mechanistic and systematized magic, which [caveat] I don't expect everyone to share. I had issues with Michael Sullivan's Powdermage series as well because of this, despite absolutely losing my mind over an Early Modern fantasy series based around the French Revolution.

See, that's what I like about Sanderson, but again I get that it's not for everybody

Also-- Wasn't Powdermage Brian McClellan? I loved the setting, but I had some issues with the magic in that as well.
 

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,197
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Los Angeles
See, that's what I like about Sanderson, but again I get that it's not for everybody

Also-- Wasn't Powdermage Brian McClellan? I loved the setting, but I had some issues with the magic in that as well.

Exactly, a hard YMMV on that one. And ty, McClellan.
 

Lolly12

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 2, 2018
Messages
90
Reaction score
5
Location
UK
Ian McEwen. Because my friends all had a collective orgasm over Atonement, I read it and then I tried to read Saturday. I can't tell you what the disconnect for me is--the writing is lucid and his images are startling, but there's something so airless about the worlds McEwen creates.

His images are startling, that's true and he begins like a runaway train. Atonement fell apart through the last third, very frustrating. I've read Saturday all the way through but was hoping he'd kill everyone off as was thoroughly fed up with that family. Shame about that. Enduring Love was kind of ok but again got fed up with it. Maybe he just struggles with endings?

I certainly struggle with his endings.
 

Norman Mjadwesch

vacuous eyes, will bark at shadows
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2018
Messages
2,295
Reaction score
1,862
Location
Far Far Away
Sorry, I haven’t read the entire thread so if I’m doubling up on what others have said then skip this bit.

Maybe I’m just a philistine (or at least was thirty years ago), but for me it was pretty well everything in the high school syllabus. I hated Shakespeare, and I wanted Jane Austin to die except she was reaching out to me from beyond the grave with Emma. I literally could not even finish the first page of that one, but fortunately a thing called Browning’s Notes got me through the exam (and confirmed to me that the novel in question was everything I feared, and more).

I have talked about this with other people, and so many of my friends never became readers because of the books that we were expected to study at school (although, if they weren’t readers by high school they probably weren’t going to be in any case). But surely if the education system wants kids to read, something a bit less heavy would be in order? All I know was that the books I read were nothing like the literary requirement.

In more recent time it’s Matthew Reilly. There is such a thing as physics: it is not possible to swim across a body of water with a coil of wire trailing behind you – that is called drowning; ice bergs have a centre of gravity that is far below the waterline – they are unable to rotate upon their axis without submerging the secret hanger within; readers have intelligence, therefore I no longer subscribe. His writing style is entertaining but his research is non-existent. No. Just no. Nuff said.
 

Earthling

I come in peace
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2016
Messages
1,210
Reaction score
192
Stephen King, which sucks because I'm a massive horror fan. I've tried several of his books and I felt all of them needed trimming by at least half, and I wasn't even a teeny bit scared at any point. I can usually see the appeal of authors even if I'm not a fan, but the Stephen King love really baffles me.
 

TheMontess

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Messages
68
Reaction score
5
Location
United Kingdom
Apologies if it's already been covered, but Holly Black.
My best friend gushed and raved and was frankly /in love/ with Tithe as a teenager. I can't remember if I read that one, but she thought it was The Best Thing Ever. Sometime last year I was scouting around for something to read and saw Twitter losing its collective mind over Black's book The Cruel Prince. YA fantasy isn't usually my thing, but I remembered how much my friend had loved Tithe and thought I'd give it a shot.

Oh. My. Word.
Dear friends, I struggled through 6 chapters hoping it would get better before I could no longer read another word. The world building is insipid (They're fae~! Everything is d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-t~!) and the narrative juvenile. I couldn't conjure up any emotion for what the characters had been through, nor any enthusiasm towards seeing how their story progressed. Plus, the main narrative seemed to be "guy is an abusive [insert insult of choice] but maybe there are, like, /reasons/, or he'll redeem himself so it will be OK". Nope. Straight-up not my cup of tea. Makes me wonder if I'm just getting crotchety as I get older, but people love this stuff and I don't.
 

Helix

socially distancing
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
11,695
Reaction score
12,079
Location
Atherton Tablelands
Website
snailseyeview.medium.com
I'm always looking for new crime writers to fall in love with, so a crime-reading friend recommended Martha Grimes. Can't remember which of the Richard Jury novels I read, but my goodness it was a load of badly-written tosh. Piss poor knowledge of procedure, an absolute tin ear for dialogue and dialects, and a complete lack of understanding of culture. Plus the plot was silly. I was so traumatised by the experience, I haven't picked up another Grimes' book.